If I manage to find a foothold, my next woe is battling the pickpockets who literally have a free hand in any crowded local as well as on crowded platforms.
Deepa Suryanarayan recounts a day in a suburban train journey
The sight of Mumbai’s jam-packed locals trundling on the tracks may be a constant reminder of the serial bomb blasts that rocked the trains a year-and-half ago, but a terrorist attack is the last thing on my mind as I desperately try to find my footing on the footboard of a fast train during rush hour.
If I manage to find a foothold, my next woe is battling the pickpockets who literally have a free hand in any crowded local as well as on crowded platforms.
On a particularly crowded working day, I was unfortunate enough to have my mobile phone stolen. The railway police at Kurla station, where I registered my complaint, informed me that the network is so well established that each thief is allotted a set of railway stations to operate on.
Then, of course, there are eunuchs, who also operate railway-station wise. So I am bound to find Ganga, the one-legged eunuch who begs or rather extorts money out of regular commuters, in the stations between Thane and Kurla.
Passengers who refuse to pay her or pay her a ‘measly 50 paise’ suffer a shower of abuses or have the coin flung back at them.
The urchins selling trinkets and other goods on trains are another problem, because they are not so little anymore. These days it is not unusual to find men who are well over 20 selling goods in a compartment reserved ‘exclusively for ladies.’
Another stress factor for women commuters are hundreds of eve-teasers, who whistle loudly or lean out of passing trains scaring. There have been several instances where male passengers have hit women in passing trains or those walking on platforms.
Police posted at the railway stations often refuse to help, saying they are there to check passengers, and that complaints ought to be lodged at a police station, not the railway station.
Some women carry a knife or pepper spray as railway police, who used to travel in the ladies compartments earlier, have been asked to man railway stations instead.
Now, the odd policeman travelling in a ladies compartment is more often than not bound to be on his way home after duty, in an inebriated condition.
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